Apple News Roundup: iTV In 2013 & Siri In OX 10.9

According to a report from Appleinsider, Piper Jaffray analyst – Gene Munster has issued a note to investors indicating that in 2013 Apple will be adding new products to the their current offerings.

Munster once again posited that the Cupertino-based will be releasing a television set in time for the holiday 2013 shopping season. He expects the product to be priced between $1,500 and $2,000, with screen sizes between 42 and 55 inches.

Seriously, Apple should name at least one feature of this iTV – Gene. The guy has been been the biggest supporter of such a device from Apple.

Here is what the article had to say:

[quote] “We expect the beauty of the design to be a feature, but the most important feature will be the ability to use the TV as the main interface for the living room across multiple devices,” Munster wrote. “We believe the TV will include Siri and FaceTime. The biggest item unlikely to come with the TV will be unbundled channels.”

But before a television set, Munster expects Apple to hold an event around March of next year to launch a new radio service to compete with Pandora. Recent reports have revealed that Apple has been in talks with content providers to create a streaming radio service.

Munster believes that any new service would be accompanied by a new product launch. He believes the most likely product update for early 2013 could be an iPad mini with a high-resolution Retina display.

While the iPad mini just went on sale earlier this month, he believes Apple could quickly upgrade it to a high-resolution screen to “address the only significant complaint about the iPad mini.”

Munster also sees Apple introducing an updated Apple TV set-top box around the same time. He believes the $99 streaming device could be updated to include a TV app store.

As for the third major product launch event in 2013, Munster believes Apple will introduce its next iPhone around September. He expects a so-called “iPhone 5S” that would be a “modest upgrade” from the current iPhone 5, with a faster processor, more RAM and a better camera.

“We expect iOS 7 core new features to include additional wallet features for Passbook, commerce integration for Siri (Groupon/LivingSocial as an example), and Maps improvements,” he said. “We expect MacBook Airs will get a Retina display option.”[/quote]

In other news, 9to5mac has reported that early versions of the next-generation Mac operating system, OS X 10.9, indicates that Siri and Maps will be fully integrated in the system.

It is currently uncertain if Siri will be available, if it goes past the early testing stages, in OS X 10.9 for all users. Siri on iOS devices is tied specifically to certain, newer iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches, so it is possible that Apple will make a similar decision for Siri on the Mac. However, Dictation, which uses a similar infrastructure and hardware resources as Siri, is available on all Macs capable of running Mountain Lion, the current Mac operating system that introduced Dictation.

In addition to that, Apple plans to integrate its so-far criticized and controversial mapping service into OS X as a framework for developers, according to people familiar with early testing. Like on iOS devices, if the feature moves past early testing, developers will be able to embed a map into their applications for the Mac App Store. More details after the break

With this MapKit framework, as developers refer to it for iOS, in OS X 10.9, it is also possible that Apple will extend its own work on mapping on the Mac besides integration for developers. It is possible that Apple will want its own full-fledged Maps app on the Mac, but we have not been able to confirm that as of yet.[/quote]